Answer - What is the difference between 'ye', 'yeah, 'yea' and 'yay'?
At first sight, you might think that these are all variant spellings of the same word, but they're not. With a little help from our friends in Star Trek...
Let's take them in order. 'Ye' is completely separate from the other three, being an old-fashioned term for 'you', nowadays heard most often in hymns; 'Oh come, all ye faithful', 'God rest ye merry, gentlemen', 'Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim'.
It is, however, still used in some dialects.
"Warp nine, Mr. Scott," Kirk said, knowing what the Chief Engineer's reply would be.
"Ye canna mean that, Captain!" Scotty exclaimed. "We canna go faster than Warp Eight!"
It's also an old-fashioned way to spell the definite article "þe" ('the'). A study of old Church manuscripts seems to indicate that in the days before printing, French monks educated in Latin who arrived in Britain after the Normal Conquest began to replace the thorn, a letter used by the Anglo-Saxons that didn't appear in the Latin alphabet, with a 'y' (a letter they thought it resembled), thus rendering the thorn obsolete. And in Scotland, for a long time ye and ze ('z' being pronounced as 'y', the two letters being regarded as pretty well interchangeable) were recognized variants of 'the'. In a Scottish graveyard (Kinclaven) there's a stone, about five hundred years old, marking the grave of 'ye zonger dochter' (the younger daughter) of a local family. Even today, in some areas, 'down the road' is pronounced as 'doon ee road', and names that include a Z are often pronounced as if it were a Y.
Shore leave in Scotland had seemed like a good idea, but "What did you say this place is called?" McCoy asked.
"Moolie," Scotty replied.
"But it's spelled M-o-u-l-z-i-e!" McCoy objected.
"Aye, but the Z is pronounced as a Y," Scotty explained.
The other three words, however, are related.
'Yeah' is straightforward; it means 'yes'.
"Yeah, I'll do that," McCoy said cheerfully. "It won't take long."
'Yea' (Middle English, from Old English gea) also means yes, but is more archaic, being a more 'refined', more 'dignified' way of saying 'aye'. It's most often heard today in a sentence like 'The yeas carry the vote' when a committee decision has to be made.
'Aye' survives in naval parlance, e.g.
Kirk punched the intercom. "Security, I want three men in the transporter room imediately."
"Aye, aye, sir!"
Aye also means 'for ever' or 'always', deriving from the Middle English ai, which in turn comes from the Old Norse ei.
"What's this thing for?" Riley asked. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before."
"It's old, aye, but it's aye been there," Scotty said. "Ever since the ship was built. It's no' something we use much, but it's there if we need it. And I'll tell ye, laddie, if we do need it, we need it!" He patted the small piece of machinery affectionately.
'Yay' is relatively recent, being an exuberant exclamation denoting satisfaction about something. It may very probably be related to 'yeah', possibly deriving from the satisfied exclamation people make (often with a clenched fist) when something works out exactly right.
Uhura swung her chair round. "Captain, we've been authorised to take shore leave at Wrigley's Pleasure Planet."
"Yay!" Chekov muttered, a happy gleam in his eyes. Sulu glanced over at him and grinned.
To sum up, 'ye' is an old-fashioned, though still used in dialect, word meaning 'you'. The others all mean 'yes', though with slightly different degrees of gravity, from the solemn and dignified 'yea', through the more common 'yeah', to the enthusiastic 'yay'.
Spell it Out by David Crystal (Profile Books)
www.TheFreeDictionary.com
Let's take them in order. 'Ye' is completely separate from the other three, being an old-fashioned term for 'you', nowadays heard most often in hymns; 'Oh come, all ye faithful', 'God rest ye merry, gentlemen', 'Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim'.
It is, however, still used in some dialects.
"Warp nine, Mr. Scott," Kirk said, knowing what the Chief Engineer's reply would be.
"Ye canna mean that, Captain!" Scotty exclaimed. "We canna go faster than Warp Eight!"
It's also an old-fashioned way to spell the definite article "þe" ('the'). A study of old Church manuscripts seems to indicate that in the days before printing, French monks educated in Latin who arrived in Britain after the Normal Conquest began to replace the thorn, a letter used by the Anglo-Saxons that didn't appear in the Latin alphabet, with a 'y' (a letter they thought it resembled), thus rendering the thorn obsolete. And in Scotland, for a long time ye and ze ('z' being pronounced as 'y', the two letters being regarded as pretty well interchangeable) were recognized variants of 'the'. In a Scottish graveyard (Kinclaven) there's a stone, about five hundred years old, marking the grave of 'ye zonger dochter' (the younger daughter) of a local family. Even today, in some areas, 'down the road' is pronounced as 'doon ee road', and names that include a Z are often pronounced as if it were a Y.
Shore leave in Scotland had seemed like a good idea, but "What did you say this place is called?" McCoy asked.
"Moolie," Scotty replied.
"But it's spelled M-o-u-l-z-i-e!" McCoy objected.
"Aye, but the Z is pronounced as a Y," Scotty explained.
The other three words, however, are related.
'Yeah' is straightforward; it means 'yes'.
"Yeah, I'll do that," McCoy said cheerfully. "It won't take long."
'Yea' (Middle English, from Old English gea) also means yes, but is more archaic, being a more 'refined', more 'dignified' way of saying 'aye'. It's most often heard today in a sentence like 'The yeas carry the vote' when a committee decision has to be made.
'Aye' survives in naval parlance, e.g.
Kirk punched the intercom. "Security, I want three men in the transporter room imediately."
"Aye, aye, sir!"
Aye also means 'for ever' or 'always', deriving from the Middle English ai, which in turn comes from the Old Norse ei.
"What's this thing for?" Riley asked. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before."
"It's old, aye, but it's aye been there," Scotty said. "Ever since the ship was built. It's no' something we use much, but it's there if we need it. And I'll tell ye, laddie, if we do need it, we need it!" He patted the small piece of machinery affectionately.
'Yay' is relatively recent, being an exuberant exclamation denoting satisfaction about something. It may very probably be related to 'yeah', possibly deriving from the satisfied exclamation people make (often with a clenched fist) when something works out exactly right.
Uhura swung her chair round. "Captain, we've been authorised to take shore leave at Wrigley's Pleasure Planet."
"Yay!" Chekov muttered, a happy gleam in his eyes. Sulu glanced over at him and grinned.
To sum up, 'ye' is an old-fashioned, though still used in dialect, word meaning 'you'. The others all mean 'yes', though with slightly different degrees of gravity, from the solemn and dignified 'yea', through the more common 'yeah', to the enthusiastic 'yay'.
Spell it Out by David Crystal (Profile Books)
www.TheFreeDictionary.com